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Lucy Mangan

Lucy Mangan

The Guardian

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Modern life is too noisy – and I won't be silenced

Am I to get no peace? This is not a rhetorical question. It is not the plangent cry of a mother on her knees, so close to the end and yet still not...

25.08.2024 5

iNews

Lucy Mangan

Hen dos in your forties are just indecent

You think you’re safe. You think the one thing that age and decrepitude brings is a certain amount of protection from particular horrors. And then,...

19.08.2024 6

iNews

Lucy Mangan

We are stupid and greedy - that's why holidays must be rationed

You see – this is why we can’t have nice things. Human stupidity. And greed. Human stupidigreed. Specifically, this time, we cannot have nice...

12.08.2024 4

iNews

Lucy Mangan

Upset by a rogue apostrophe? Join my pedants' revolt

I have saddled my horse, checked my spurs and mail, looked to my troops and pronounce myself ready. A battle has broken out in North Yorkshire and I...

05.08.2024 10

iNews

Lucy Mangan

Are you finding it hard to read for pleasure? This is why

There was a time when I would have greeted the news that a third of adults have stopped reading for pleasure with absolute astonishment. Utter...

29.07.2024 4

iNews

Lucy Mangan

With the end of 1p and 2p coins, one of life's small pleasures would disappear

The Treasury has denied that it has plans to phase out pennies and tuppences after it declined to order any copper coins from the Royal Mint this...

25.07.2024 4

iNews

Lucy Mangan

Ask old people for life advice – they’re the last properly adult generation

We lay our scene at my mother’s house a few days ago. It was a rare sunny forecast and by four o’clock she had done, dried and taken in the 17...

22.07.2024 6

iNews

Lucy Mangan

It’s time to start saying ‘no’ to pushy charities

So, here’s a situation I would like to set before you and have you tell me whether I am rotten to the core or, in fact, an entirely reasonable...

15.07.2024 3

iNews

Lucy Mangan

I am so jealous of my friend going back to university in her 40s

My friend – we’ll call her Ana, as that’s her name – is going to university at the age of 42. She had her children in her 20s and now that...

07.07.2024 8

iNews

Lucy Mangan

Bored of the election – here are 5 other things to talk about

It’s the general election on Thursday! Let’s talk about absolutely anything else! What do you fancy? We’ve got: 1. The fact that summer reading...

30.06.2024 6

iNews

Lucy Mangan

I’ve started walking and yes, fine, it’s changed my life

I have started walking. Not right now, obviously – I’m sitting down and typing in my stained cardigan and leggings like the respected professional...

23.06.2024 10

iNews

Lucy Mangan

Why can't we just admit it when we're lucky and rich?

“Cringe” is such a great word. Virtually onomatopoeic, so vividly does the very weakness of its sound conjure the quivering, quailing inward...

16.06.2024 9

iNews

Lucy Mangan

I've refused to celebrate my birthday since I was 13 (but I will accept cash gifts)

I have a big birthday coming up. I’m not going to tell you how big, because it’s appalling and I’m remaining in as much denial as I can for as...

09.06.2024 8

iNews

Lucy Mangan

The way men read books really explains a lot

One of my favourite internet quotes, which seems to be unattributed, is one that points out how weird reading is. “Staring at slices of marked tree...

02.06.2024 10

iNews

Lucy Mangan

The way we treat overweight men is astonishing

I was six when I started my first diet. It was a modest effort, mainly because I had no control over what was given to me to eat for my breakfast,...

19.05.2024 10

iNews

Lucy Mangan

Stormy Daniels and the power of the unshameable woman

How Donald Trump must have dreaded this day. On Tuesday, Stormy Daniels stepped into the witness stand at the former president’s criminal trial...

12.05.2024 40

iNews

Lucy Mangan

I used to scorn those who grieved people they had never met – now I understand

CJ Sansom, the author of the Shardlake series of historical mysteries (and two standalone novels), has died and I am sad. I used to talk to myself...

05.05.2024 9

iNews

Lucy Mangan

The death of Reader’s Digest is no laughing matter

So farewell then to one of the great pleasures of my youth and one to which I was very much planning to return in my old age – the Reader’s Digest...

01.05.2024 20

iNews

Lucy Mangan

Excessive sentimentality about animals leaves us blind to reality

It will undoubtedly be one of the pictures of the year. Household Cavalry horses bloodied and rampant in the streets of London, after being spooked...

28.04.2024 10

iNews

Lucy Mangan

I’ve found the key to happiness and it starts with low expectations

Bryan Johnson, for those of you who have not yet had the pleasure, is a multimillionaire biohacker who has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers...

15.04.2024 20

iNews

Lucy Mangan

After reading code of conducts for events, I have one question for men

Did you know that codes of conduct – actual written codes of conduct, with clauses, explanations, definitions and all the other quasi-legal...

07.04.2024 10

iNews

Lucy Mangan

We can’t get from A to B and it might just be the Government’s downfall

I have made several train journeys in the past few weeks. So has my husband. So have many friends of mine. All to different places, on different...

31.03.2024 40

iNews

Lucy Mangan

A Katespiracy too far

In all honesty, until now I have been quite enjoying Kategate, the mad whirl of questions and conspiracies about the whereabouts of the Princess of...

20.03.2024 4

iNews

Lucy Mangan

Jamie Oliver's air fryer series reeks of desperation - isn't he rich enough?

As I am reminded every time I look in the mirror, tackle stairs or find myself turning the pages of a Lands’ End catalogue with increasing interest...

17.03.2024 7

iNews

Lucy Mangan

Early birds and people with routines – I've had it with all of you

Morning people – early birds, the circadian-rhythmically frontloaded – have always annoyed me. We night owls work just as hard, just as...

04.03.2024 10

iNews

Lucy Mangan

I simply can’t accept William as a future king

God save the King! Not a sentiment I would normally feel the need to espouse, but we live in strange and difficult times and so I must insist that God...

26.02.2024 20

iNews

Lucy Mangan

Common sense is back – will the violently stupid be able to cope?

This week my friend had to pay in a large cheque at the bank, a very generous gift from her child’s godmother. The teller – a woman of late...

19.02.2024 20

iNews

Lucy Mangan

I tried to be optimistic for a month - it made me more delusional than ever

Oh, thank God January’s over. It’s a shame it leads into February, obviously, which is by far the bleakest month and frankly doesn’t get enough...

05.02.2024 10

iNews

Lucy Mangan

My son says he is not a book person. Where did my parenting go wrong?

My husband and I were just minding our own business the other evening when our 12-year-old son appeared in front of us with an announcement. “I,”...

28.01.2024 10

iNews

Lucy Mangan

You can't put a price on the joy of libraries

Shh! An independent review of public libraries in England has just been published. Commissioned by culture minister Stephen Parkinson, and conducted...

21.01.2024 10

iNews

Lucy Mangan

My advice to men in the delivery ward? Shut up

I have just one child. This is not wholly but in very large part because I almost died giving birth to him. When people heard that I’d had the baby...

15.01.2024 6

iNews

Lucy Mangan

By the end of 2024 I want to be sharing a bunk bed with my husband

It is the end of the year, and I will be honest. It is hard to look back and point with any degree of certainty or satisfaction at any significant...

31.12.2023 8

iNews

Lucy Mangan

It's our first Christmas without Dad and we don't quite know what to do

Are you having a weird Christmas? We are. It’s our first without Dad, who died in January. My sister and I have had nearly 50 Christmases with him,...

24.12.2023 10

iNews

Lucy Mangan

A squirt of watery mayonnaise and suddenly I understood why the UK is in such a mess

I started a new squirty bottle of mayonnaise yesterday (I know, I know, it’s almost too fascinating to bear already, but stay with me) and it was…...

18.12.2023 6

iNews

Lucy Mangan

The Government’s plea for ‘personal resilience’ is bulging with contempt

Well, I hope you have all added torches, batteries, candles, camping stoves and clockwork radios to your Christmas lists, in accordance with the...

10.12.2023 40

iNews

Lucy Mangan

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